Three Al Jazeera journalists found guilty and sentenced to 3 years at retrial in Egypt

Three al-Jazeera journalists convicted of "spreading false news" have been sentenced to three years in prison at their retrial in Cairo. One journalist, Baher Mohamed was given an extra six months.

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The three were Mohamed Fahmy a Canadian, Egyptian Baher Mohamed, and Australian Peter Greste. Fahmy and Mohamed were led away from the court back to prison after sentencing. The third journalist, Australian Peter Greste, was deported back to Australia earlier in the year but nevertheless was put on trial again in absentia. Greste and Fahmy had been originally sentenced to seven years and Mohamed to ten in July of 2014. These convictions were overturned in January of this year. The three are all accused of aiding the Muslim Brotherhood, the party of former elected Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi. The party is now banned as a terrorist group and supporting them is a crime. All three deny the charges and claim they were simply doing their job a reporters. The lawyers for the three journalists are expected to appeal the decision.

Lyle Doucet of the BBC said the verdict came as a shock in the room filled with Egyptian and foreign journalists. Although a guilty verdict was still expected, many thought that they would be given a lesser sentence and allowed to go free given that they had already served almost a year in prison before being freed pending this trial. Canada had hoped that Fahmy would have been deported as was the Australian journalist. Fahmy had given up his Egyptian citizenship in order to faciliate such a move. However, president el-Sisi said he could not interfere with the judicial process. Of course he had already done so in deporting Greste. This obviously annoyed the judiciary who tried Greste in absentia during this retrial.

Greste tweeted that he was "shocked" and "outraged" by the verdict and described it as "yet another deliberate attack on press freedom".When the guilty verdict was read out, Mohamed Fahmy's wife, Marwa Omara, began to sob. Her ordeal had now lasted 608 days. Fahmy's lawyer,Amal Clooney, said: "The verdict today sends a very dangerous message in Egypt, It sends a message that journalists can be locked up for simply doing their job, for telling the truth and reporting the news."Clooney asked president el-Sisi to pardon the three journalists. She said that she would also push to have Fahmy deported to Canada. Now that the trial is over el-Sisi would not be interfering in the ongoing judicial process were he to do so. However, he may wish to show that he will not be pushed around by foreigners. He may regret having deported the Australian journalist.

Given that Egypt has had several mass trials at which hundreds of those opposing his regime, most supporters of former president Morsi, have been condemned to death, el-Sisi probably worries little about the credibility of his regime and its judiciary. He knows that the US and Russia will continue to send him arms and other aid. Just recently Egypt has passed an even more stringent law as part of its anti-terror legislation: A new anti-terrorism law in Egypt will make publishing news that contradicts the official version of events in terrorism-related cases a crime punishable by prison sentences, a setback for the freedom of the press, according to the local journalists union.

Evidence during the trial showed that the journalists had not been licensed. Al Jazeera answers questions about this and other aspects of the trial.

Egypt releases one journalist but 183 people sentenced to death

Egypt has released one Al Jazeera journalist, Australian Peter Greste, who had been in a Cairo prison for 400 days. Two other Al Jazeera journalists remain in prison.

Greste was released by Egyptian authorities unconditionally according to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Canadian Egyptian journalist Mohamed Fahmy was still imprisoned yesterday but his release is expected at any time. His UK colleague Sue Turton reported to the Star newspaper: “It does look like it’s really imminent. I know we’ve been saying that for the last 24 hours.” The Canadian Foreign Affairs minister, John Baird, who had been pressing Egyptian authorities for Fahmy's release announced his resignation yesterday. Al Jazeera claims its three journalists were wrongly convicted back in 2013 under Egypt's anti-terrorism laws. Among the charges was spreading lies to help the Muslim Brotherhood, designated as a terrorist organization in Egypt. The regime even promoted the trial: Ahead of the trial the prosecution aired a 22-minute video on a pro-regime network of the what they described as the lair of the "Marriott Cell" – the hotel where the Al Jazeera reporters were staying when they were arrested on charges of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood and abetting terrorism. To an ominous soundtrack – the music was stolen from the comic book movie "Thor: The Dark World" – the camera pans over computers, cameras, notebooks, and ethernet cable. The short film was designed to feed the xenophobic and anti-Muslim Brotherhood hysteria of post-coup Egypt. While both Fahmy and Greste have dual citizenship the third journalist, Baher Mohamed, has only Egyptian citizenship. Greste said that his release was "a really big step forward" for Egypt and he hoped that his colleagues would also be released.

Response to the news was muted in Egypt where press freedom has been restricted under President el-Sisi. Julie Posetti on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) said that under new legislation passed by the Abbott government, journalists could also risk imprisonment for reporting on terrorism: "While the government is celebrating the release of journalist Peter Greste, it's still responsible for legislation that represents a chilling attack on media freedom in our own country." In Canada, the Harper government also passed legislation that will make it a crime to support terrorism. Conceivably, this legislation could also be used against journalists. 

 However, imprisoning journalists may be a high profile sign of Egypt's perverted justice system but the worst injustices have been mass trials of protesters and imposition of hundreds of death sentences, as well as killing of hundreds of protesters in earlier crackdowns on protests against the military coup. Even as Greste was released an Egyptian court sentenced another 183 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood to death for their role in protests after the present president el-Sisi mounted a military coup that overthrew the elected government of Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. In early 2014 there were mass show trials in which more than 2,100 protesters were sentenced to death. One trial alone in April of 2014 recommended the death sentence for 683 people including the leader of the Brotherhood Mohammed Badie. President Obama has requested $1.3 billion for Egypt's military in the next budget.